last night I received some messages about Taylor Nicole Dean's
Instagram stories where she discusses kind of trying to manage her life a
little bit more and find balance between her regular life
and her social media life but she also discussed suboxone withdrawal and some
people asked me to dive into that subject so that's exactly what we're
gonna do in this video what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired
soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new
to my channel what I try to do is take different topics going on in the YouTube
community or pop culture in general to see what we can learn from them and
addiction is something that I'm very passionate about and I'll dive more into
that in a second but my goal with this video is I hope that it can help you if
you're struggling with addiction or if you know somebody struggling with
addiction hopefully it'll help so if you're any of that stuff make sure you
subscribe and bring that notification though and if you're not yet follow me
over on Instagram and Twitter at the rewired soul alright and with every
video that we do we donate 20% of the ad revenue to a good cause so this video
20% of the ad revenue will be donated to faces and voices of recovery this is a
great great great organization that goes out there and really tries to decrease
the stigma around addiction they actually try to get different laws
passed and everything like that so if you'd like to donate to them
directly I will put a link down in the description below alright so yeah Taylor
Nicole Dean I believe last time I checked she celebrated 4 months sober
and yeah she came back and she made a video not that long ago showing her her
story about how she became addicted to opioids and it was it was a powerful
powerful story and now she really wants to use her voice to try to help others
out there but she posted some stuff on Instagram yesterday and we're gonna talk
about it so before I dive into that those of you who don't know me hi I'm
Chris I'm a recovering alcoholic as well as a
drug addict much like Taylor Nicole Dean my drug of choice was opioids I got
clean June 23rd 2012 so I've been clean a little over seven years
I'm a certified life coach I worked in a drug and alcohol treatment center for a
little over three years and we did everything from medical detox to
inpatient to outpatient and aftercare and I'm currently pursuing my CADC
which is a certified palcohol and drug counselor license all right so anyways
let's dive into what Taylor Nicole Dean said in her stories yesterday so
yesterday she posted this in her stories it says hi all I've been taking a break
from social media after I noticed I'm beginning to become too invested in my
online presence compared to everything else in my life
it began to be unbalanced and kind of crumbled after a dramatic and stressful
day online which I then stayed out for around 35 hours and forgot to take my
meds so long I went into severe withdrawals my outpatient program got
very concerned for me that day and we decided that I need to rebalance my
priorities and move social media back down to the less importance it belongs
with and sorry I don't have the other one I thought I screenshotted it but I
didn't and now it's gone yeah but here's something else that she just posted
right after this a screenshot from a Twitter says gonna do a video that talks
about the basics of the illness of addiction and how it all works for the
few I discovered tonight that are still confused on how the illness is different
than just becoming physically dependent on something I encourage you all to
watch it with open minds I almost got angry at the few profiles I found
tonight that were focused on attacking me but then remembered I've yet to do a
single video on how it all works in the brain I'm also gonna work really hard on
it for everyone who's been so open-minded and kind towards my journey
all right so a few things from that like before we dive into the suboxone topic
and withdrawal like this is so dope like Taylor Nicole Dean as somebody you know
who got clean and sober she's sharing her experience and she's also sharing
what she learned I really admire that in people because
the thing not everybody can go to treatment all right and not everybody
can gain that knowledge for example me when I got sober I had no money no
health insurance nothing I didn't get to go to a rehab and actually learn about
addiction all right I had to go do that on my own
so it's awesome that Taylor Nicole Dean is going to make some videos discussing
what she learned in treatment about the science of addiction and relay that
information like that's really really cool because like I said so many people
don't have the opportunity to go to rehab
like 12-step programs are free and awesome but like for example like the
the big book of AAA that was written in the 1930s and although there is a
chapter and they're called the doctor's opinion like that is old doctor's
opinion you know from the 30s and stuff like that there's actually a lot of
science out there today the other thing I want to talk about is Taylor Nicole
Dean recognizing as well as people in her life like her outpatient program and
I'm sure members of her support group noticing that imbalance and yeah like
from my experience that first year of recovery is so hard I've been meaning to
make a video about it but my second year of recovery was actually like three
times harder than my first one but yeah we need people in our lives who can help
point out like yo I'm noticing an imbalance because I remember when I
first got sober somebody said I think at a meeting somewhere they said recovery
is all about balance and I was like yes because those of us with an addiction
like we go to extremes right we don't just have one drink we have all the
drinks we don't just have one drug we have all the drugs but this goes into
other aspects of our lives and sometimes when we get sober from my experience as
well as those I've worked with we can become addicted to something else
whether it's relationships or whether it's our work or whether it's social
media or whatever it is and we need to step back and say okay why why are
things becoming difficult again right like we get clean we get sober to have
this awesome amazing life and what things start getting all out of whack
it's like okay what is happening because a lot of us and even those who aren't in
recovery and have never struggled with addiction
a lot of us have this kind of delusion that the drugs or the alcohol or the
problem right one of the biggest things that I learned in early recovery was if
you take the alcohol and drugs away from me
my life can still become a hot mess because I can become addicted to
anything so it's awesome that Taylor Nicole Dean is sharing about this
experience and having that clarity all right
so Taylor talks about how she stayed up and she forgot to take her meds and she
went into withdrawal so Taylor coming off of opioids she's being on suboxone
maintenance she's shared about this before alright so those of you don't
know let's talk real quick what is suboxone okay this is a medication
typically used for opioid addicts when they are getting off of opioids
basically what suboxone does is it tricks the brain into thinking that
you're still using the drug all right opioid withdrawal is absolutely brutal
alright so thank God for medications like suboxone
so these they could be taken short-term or long-term depending on your personal
preference as well as your doctor all right so like Taylor Nicole Dean that
you went to a rehab but even if you don't go to a rehab there are many
addiction specialists out there who you can see like kind of in an outpatient
format and detox that way and discuss with them the options of short-term
versus long-term I'm gonna show my opinions in a little bit but anyways I'm
like Taylor Nicole Dean I didn't take suboxone and listen I'm not saying that
to brag okay here's the story behind that when I got sober my mom she was a
clinical director at a rehab and there was a doctor there too and this doctor
was a dick but he saved my life though but anyways when he evaluated me to see
if I needed to be on suboxone or anything for withdrawal I didn't know I
was so ignorant about all this stuff I didn't know that I was gonna withdrawal
like I was so I lied to this dude I lied to this dude about how much I was like
yeah I just like snort a lortab here or there but i was like snorting like 100
milligram morphine pills other stuff right like it was way worse
but like for some reason I lied to this guy so he's like okay your withdrawal
shouldn't be too bad right and within a matter of a day or two
once the opioids started leaving my system I went into a wicked withdrawal I
was in a sober living house and I was just in bed and I made a video about
what opioid withdrawal is like from my experience and it was just awful just
aches and pains and cold sweats and shakes and stuff coming out of both fans
and it is not good and I called the doctor back and I was like I was like
how I was lied to boxing because like everybody else in my sober living house
like they were tapering off suboxone for the withdrawal and the doctor pretty
much said to me is like up too bad you lied click so I had to do a cold turkey
opioid detox but like I said like if I was given the option for suboxone I
would have taken it now again short-term suboxone verse long-term suboxone so
some of my closest friends in the sober living house and they're actually still
sober today so we all have you know over seven years now
they they were on suboxone maintenance for like a long time so to put it in
perspective at the treatment center I was working at when people with detox
off suboxone we would do pretty much one to two weeks max unless the doctor felt
it was necessary to keep him on longer like there were different conditions
like for example I remember a one young woman who was pregnant right and they
had to keep her on suboxone you know to help protect the baby because you know
when your body goes Sade's through anything it affects the baby to pay
anyways so my friends they were on suboxone long term kind of like Taylor
Nicole Dean is and they they finally wanted to get off with her on it for
months now the thing is about suboxone even though it it helps with opioid
withdrawals when you get off of suboxone there are withdrawals as well so I
remember watching my buddies like they it felt like they just prolonged that
withdrawal right for like I think it was like
four or five or six months and anybody out there who's trying to get off
suboxone I'll tell you this these two they started eating healthy and things
like that they also started doing yoga every day and they said it helped a time
all right so there's a lot of holistic ways to help you get off of suboxone so
like when I saw what they were going through I was like wow because my
withdrawal pretty much only lasted a week week and a half I think like it was
like this like you know terrible awful experience that I never want to go
through again but I got it out of the way in the beginning you know what I
mean and something that keeps me sober is I never want to go through that again
right so Taylor Nicole Dean you know when she talks about this kind of
imbalance that happened in her life when she forgot to take her suboxone her body
started going into withdrawal so like I said you know there's long term and
they're short-term there's pros and cons to both in case you didn't hear my
qualifications earlier none of them listed that I'm a doctor so if you are
thinking about getting clean or if you're on suboxone never quit by
yourself or anything like that like go talk to a doctor all right
have them help you taper off if you're trying to get clean talk to them about
the options between short term and long term like one of the reasons I make
these videos is I have met countless people okay and this isn't to say that
all doctors are bad but I've met countless people where they were not
warned that long-term suboxone maintenance would lead to dependence and
withdrawal all right so with anything like I don't care if you're an addict or
not an addict when you go see a doctor ask questions like I'm a recovering
addict so whenever I see a doctor especially a new doctor I have to sit
there and ask them about medications the different side effects I have to say are
these you know narcotics or any of these you know potentially addictive because I
can't take any of those and all those kind of things so like whenever you sit
down with the doctor like it is you're right I think it's also your
responsibility as a patient to sit there and say what am I taking what are the
side effects is there withdrawal that's at the top all these other things so you
can work with your doctor and make the best choice possible all right and if
you think this video might help someone you know who
struggling with addiction please share with them but again I do just want to
say once again like Taylor Nicole Dean I am really really proud of her journey
and I look forward to seeing her her videos and I'm glad that she's using her
platform to help teach and educate others and I'm sure she's inspired
countless people from her audience to go out and seek help and that is just so
awesome because the opioid epidemic the addiction epidemic as a whole is just
massive in the United States as well as other parts of the country right now all
right anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give
it a thumbs up if you new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification
bell and I want to send out a huge thank you to everybody who supports the
channel over on patreon or who buys my mental health books or merch you're all
amazing alright thanks again for watching I'll see you next time